


i'll be there for you

by orphan_account



Category: Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (TV)
Genre: BUT NOT THE KIND WHERE THEY ACTUALLY GET TOGETHER, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Light Angst, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, listen they interacted for like two seconds in canon and i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28968636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Brad cashes in his favor.
Relationships: Brad Bakshi & Rachel
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	i'll be there for you

**Author's Note:**

> this is kind of a weird premise sorry! anyways she's a lesbian he's gay their 33 year marriage defies all stereotypes
> 
> i couldn't really get brad's voice punches a wall...

Whatever Rachel had been expecting Brad to ask her, this was not it.

She gapes at him. “I’m sorry, you want me to do what now?”

“Pretend to be my wife,” he says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. “Just for a night, to my family.”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“What do you mean why not? Why would I do that?”

“Because I own you so you’re not allowed to turn me down.”

Jesus, he’s insufferable. “Why do you need a fake wife anyway?”

He shrugs. “Just want them to see that I’m happy and successful and whatever.”

“Do they not know you’re gay?”

“No.”

“Why are you ashamed-”

He raises a hand to cut her off. “I’m not _ashamed_ , Rachel, I just don’t want them to be. Listen, they think my life is horrible and I’m tired of them pitying me.”

“Is your life not horrible?”

“Fuck off. The point is, you’re gonna do it.”

“I’m not gonna do it.”

“You are.”

“Okay, even if I was gonna do it-”

“Which you are.”

“Even if I was gonna do it,” she continues, “I’m like twenty years younger than you, is that not weird?”

“Eh. We can claim you’re thirty or something. They won’t really care.”

“Also, I think it’s really, really obvious that I’m a lesbian.”

He looks at her. “You may have a point with that. Ever worn a wig?”

“Brad-”

He pulls out a wig from his drawer. 

“Why the fuck do you have that in your office?” she exclaims.

“Personal reasons.” He hands it to her. “Put it on.”

She turns it over in her hands. “Is this real hair?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Where the hell is this from?”

“I said it doesn’t matter. Look, do you want to help me or not?”

“Haven’t I already said no like ten times?”

“No.”

“...Yeah, I have.”

He stares at her stoically for a few seconds, then sighs. “Okay, I’ll tell Dana you’re hopelessly in love with her if you don’t do it.”

“What the _fuck,_ Brad?”

“Would you rather it come from you, or your weird money-hoarding boss?”

“You’re not even our boss.”

“That’s what you think.”

“You’re literally not- okay, fine. I’ll do it. But I’m not wearing this wig. Because I’m terrified of it.”

“Suit yourself.” He hands her a piece of paper with his address. “Friday, six pm. You better be there.”

Against her better judgement, Rachel shows up.

She parks her car on the side of the road by his house and walks up. Before she even gets to the front door, Brad is outside. “Rachel!”

“Hey, Brad.” She looks around. “This is your house?” It’s smaller than she’d expected. 

“Yeah.”

“Cool. Can I see the money bin?”

He laughs shortly. “No, you don’t get to go inside.”

“You’re making me be your wife and I can’t even enter your house? I cancelled my plans with Dana for this, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I didn’t really want to find out what favor I’d have to do for you if I skipped out on this one.”

He grins evilly and gets in the car, motioning for her to get in the passenger seat. She sighs and follows.

They drive for a while in near-silence, having a small argument every so often. Finally, they reach their destination.

“This is your parents’ house?” Rachel says in shock.

“Yup,” Brad says, getting out of the car and slamming the door.

It’s _huge_. A mansion, almost. Although it shouldn’t be that surprising- it’s kinda what she’d thought Brad’s house would have looked like.

He’s striding towards the house quickly, and she hurries to catch up. “So they’re as rich as you?”

“We all got a lot of inheritance money when my dad died.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Eh, it’s all good. He was kinda shitty anyway.”

“Still, though, are you oka-”

The door opens to reveal what she assumes is Brad’s mom. She smiles and hugs him, saying something in Hindi. He pats her back stiffly, then says something to her, gesturing towards Rachel.

Mrs. Bakshi turns to her. “You must be Rachel.”

She nods. “Hi.”

“You poor woman, married to him.” She clicks her tongue and looks at him disapprovingly. “I can’t believe you didn’t invite us to the wedding, or even tell us!”

“Oh, I tried to get him to do it, but you know how he is.”

She smiles at her and whispers to Brad, “This one’s a keeper.”

As they go inside, Brad glares at her and hisses, “Don’t have fun with this.”

“Hey, you forced me to do this. I can do whatever I want from here.”

They sit down at the table. Brad’s sisters jump up and hug him. At least he seems genuinely happy to see them.

“Oh, hey, this is Rachel.”

“Rachel! We’ve heard...well, pretty much nothing about you,” one of them says, rolling her eyes at Brad.

“I could say the same about you! He’s just a private man, I suppose.”

“Cheers to that.”

“I’m right here,” Brad complains.

They have dinner and make conversation. Brad’s sisters are funny, and nice enough, so it’s actually not that bad.

Well.

After about an hour and a half, Rachel taps Brad on the shoulder. “Hey, can I talk to you alone?”

“Yeah, sure.”

They go out to the living room.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Rachel whispers.

“You said you would.”

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind.”

“You have to-”

She raises her voice. “No, Brad, I’m _serious_. It’s fucking suffocating; I feel like I’m closeted again.”

He steps back and looks at Rachel. “Are you about to cry?”

She sniffles. “No. Shut up.”

Just then, Brad’s mom walks in. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” he says sharply. “Can we get some privacy?”

She leaves the room, and Brad turns back to Rachel. His voice softens. “Hey hey hey. It’s okay. We can stop.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yeah, we’ll just say you’re sick or something.”

“Oh my God, you’re being nice to me.”

“I am not being nice to you.”

“You so are.”

He sighs. “Maybe a little. But I hate this too. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Brad goes into the dining room and starts to explain, but his mom cuts him off.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong with you and Rachel? There’s something wrong about this, and you never even told us she existed.”

“Maybe I don’t like telling you about my personal life because you always act like this whenever you find out anything!”

“I wouldn’t have to act like this if you just talked to me in the first place! You’re so damn secretive all the time, just tell me what’s going on!”

“You want me to tell you what’s going on, huh? Well, how’s this? I’m fucking gay, Mom.”

There’s silence. Rachel stands in the living room, eyes wide, unsure what to do.

After a second, Brad walks back out, storming past her. His family quickly follows. They pat her on the back sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Rachel honey,” his mom says. “He’ll get over this soon, don’t worry.”

She looks at her incredulously. “He’ll- okay, I’m a lesbian.”

“You’re _what_?”

She ignores their questions, shoving them off of her, and runs out the door to the car. Brad is already starting to drive away.

“Brad!” she yells after him. “Brad, you can’t _leave without me_ , how the hell am I supposed to get home?”

He brings the car to a stop and she gets in. As soon as she’s in, he starts driving again.

She looks over at him. “Are you okay?”

He stares straight ahead, tapping his fingers on the wheel.

“Are you okay?” she repeats. Again, he says nothing.

“Okay, well, if you wanna talk…”

After a few minutes, he speaks. “Well. That was more interesting than I thought it would be.”

“Yeah. Why did you tell her?”

“I didn’t really mean to. Just happened.”

“Mm. I get that.”

He looks over at her. “Sorry I had to drag you into that. It was a stupid idea, anyway.”

She laughs a little. “Yeah, it was. But hey, now my debt is paid off or whatever.”

His face tightens almost imperceptibly. “Mm-hm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you mad about me saying my debt was paid off?”

He shrugs and avoids her eyes.

“Oh my God. You know you’re the one who held that over my head the whole time. You don’t get to be mad about the fact that I wouldn’t have pretended to be married to you in front of your family if you weren’t forcing me to do you a favor.”

“It just sucks sometimes. That no one wants to talk to me or whatever.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t _talk_ to you. You know no one actually hates you most of the time, right?”

“Pretty sure you’re wrong about that.”

“They really don’t. And when you’re annoying, it’s usually your fault.”

“Well, that’s harsh.”

“It’s true. Stop pushing people away or whatever.”

There’s a beat of silence, then, “So, wanna go be my fake wife again tomorrow?”

She laughs. “Hell no. I have a date with Dana.”

He looks over at her and genuinely smiles. “Hey! Good for you.”

She looks at her hands and grins. “Yeah.” 

They pull into Brad’s driveway and get out of the car, standing there awkwardly for a second before Rachel says, “So can I see the money bin now?”

“It doesn’t exist _yet_ , Rachel, were you even listening?”

“Honestly, I kinda zoned out. It sounded dumb as hell.”

“Maybe learn to appreciate Ducktales more.”

“Okay, dude, whatever you say.”

He smiles at her. “Bye.”

“Bye, Brad.”  
  


A few days later, Rachel walks into his office.

“Brad I need your help,” he says, then turns to look at her when she doesn’t say it.

She rolls her eyes. “No, dumbass, I was just gonna eat lunch with you or something.”

“I don’t want to be your pity project, Rachel.”

“Oh, please. Does it ever cross your mind that I might actually enjoy spending time with you?”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“I know you will.”

She settles into his couch.

“So, how was your date with Dana?” he asks.

She lights up. “Oh my god, it was amazing. I think I really like her.”

“Yeah, we all knew that, Rach.”

“No, but I think she really likes me too!”

“We all knew that too.”

“Shut up! It was so fun though, it was just dinner and a movie but it was really nice and then she beat my ass at the movie theater arcade but obviously I didn’t mind because it was her and then she kissed me on the cheek before she went home and it was the best date I’ve ever been on.”

Brad leans back in his chair. “Wow.”

She sighs dreamily. “Yeah. Wow.”

“You’re so gay.”

She throws her straw wrapper at him. It falls lamely to the floor.

“And you have terrible aim.”

“Okay, well, you’re gay too.”

“ _And_ you have terrible comebacks. We need to do some work on you.”

“What are you, Glinda from Wicked?”

“You’re a theatre kid too.”

“Kind of lame of you to not be a theatre kid.”

He shakes his head. “I promise you it’s not. Also, I’m like forty.”

“Jesus, I forgot how old you are. Old man.”

“I hate you, you know that?”

“Uh-huh.”


End file.
